npower

case study
Vodafone IoT
Smart meters shine a
light on energy use

Vodafone
Power to you
 npower case study
Smart meters shine a light
on energy use
What uses more electricity, three table lamps or one flat screen TV? Is running a hair dryer
on full blast for five minutes more costly than a day’s worth of phone charging?
Who knows? By 2020 the UK government hopes we’ll at least have the means to check,
as energy companies are being mandated to offer smart meters to all 26 million homes
across the UK by then.
The challenge
Creating the connected home
The UK government wants energy smart meters
in every home by 2020. The thinking is the better
able consumers are to monitor their energy
use, the more likely they will be to reduce their
consumption or choose a better tariff.
Six energy firms supply 26 million homes across
the UK, more than 90% of the market. These six
will lead the roll-out of smart meters.
Understandably, energy firms see smart meters
as an opportunity which goes beyond energy
reduction. The most visionary see the smart meter
acting as an interactive hub, able to send and
receive data throughout the day, the centrepiece of
a connected home. This hub could check whether
doors and windows are locked, activate home
appliances and adjust the central heating.
But that is a long way down the line.
npower, part of the RWE Group, serves around
6.5m residential and business customers in the UK.
RWE is one of Europe’s top five electricity and
gas companies.
For npower, the challenge is to have the capacity
to potentially install smart meters in more than
one million homes a year, nearly 19,000 each
week. These meters must be secure, easy to deploy
and super-reliable. The project which started in
2010 is under scrutiny from both government and
consumers so technical failure is not an option.
The solution
Secure, reliable and easy to deploy
For Dave Clarke, Smart Metering Technical
Business Architect at RWE npower, the search
for a solution began globally: “We wanted to see
who was already doing this. Who were the best
service providers?”
That search led to a global systems integrator
and a US smart metering specialist to supply the
communications hub, with Vodafone providing
secure connectivity. “A Vodafone global SIM
allows us to install a smart meter anywhere
in Britain, secure in the knowledge that the
Vodafone SIM will automatically connect to the
strongest signal,” says Clarke. “This also allows
us to send and receive over the air from the
SIM – we can communicate back and forth.”
This means the smart meter can fulfil its basic
function – to send a monthly or daily read and
48 half-hourly profile readings where consent is
given. npower can update the customer tariff or
take a meter reading as instructed. All updates,
along with a map of the daily usage, can be seen
via the customers’ In Home Display (IHD).
“Vodafone’s input goes beyond connectivity,
though,” says Clarke. “The solution requires
a highly complex architecture. It’s fine to
look at tried and tested solutions, but each
implementation is different and poses its own
unique problems to overcome.”
“We have three environments – development,
pre-production and live, and Vodafone
has provided a solution, the Managed IoT
Connectivity Platform , to connect these
environments through their network to
the Smart Metering Systems. With the
Vodafone MachineLink 3G terminal we
can test connections independently of the
communications hub. This hugely improves
our diagnostic capability. Vodafone’s network
experience has proved invaluable.”
Early trials went live in November 2013, with
Clarke describing the initial feedback as positive.
The plan is now to extend its foundation phase to
40,000 users, starting with npower staff, before
full roll-out in 2015.
“The next phase will allow our engineers and
service teams to gain essential learnings in
technology and the delivery,” says Clarke.
“We want to showcase an excellent npower
experience during roll-out. This is not simply
a question of dropping off a smart meter with
a customer. We are regulated to spend time
face-to-face with each customer and ensure they
understand the benefits of Smart Metering.
It’s no small venture.”
 3

“
We have three environments – development, pre-production
and live, and Vodafone has provided a solution, the Managed
IoT Connectivity Platform, to connect these environments
through their network to the Smart Metering Systems.
With the Vodafone MachineLink 3G terminal we can test
connections independently of the communications
hub. This hugely improves our diagnostic capability.
“
Vodafone’s network experience has proved invaluable.
Dave Clarke, Smart Metering Technical Business Architect, RWE npower

The bottom line

The future
“Smarter homes, lower energy, this is the stuff of
the future,” says Clarke. While solutions such as
these won’t be in place in 2015, a vision of how
connected homes could work in the future is
being considered. npower has a dedicated team
looking at the possibilities of the connected
home and is forging alliances with third party
manufacturers and developers.
“The smarter home is a journey,” says Clarke.
“We want to be at the forefront of this journey.
This is an opportunity for npower to demonstrate
its abilities in energy management, across a range
of new services.”
International expansion
• Solution capable of connecting to all
UK homes, with the ability to send and
receive data
• Creates a roadmap to deliver a true smart
home experience
• Able to ensure a roll-out of 19,000 smart
meters each week, for six years
• Provides network testing environment to
ensure flawless technical infrastructure
About the customer
• 6.5m business and residential customers
in the UK, strong in the Yorkshire and
North East region
• Parent company produces 10% of
UK electricity
• Employs 9,600 people in the UK
• Operating profits of £176m in the first
six months of 2013
• www.npower.com
vodafone.com/iot
Vodafone Group 2016. This document is issued by Vodafone in confidence and is not to be reproduced in whole or
in part without the prior written permission of Vodafone. Vodafone and the Vodafone logos are trademarks of the
Vodafone Group. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective
owners. The information contained in this publication is correct at time of going to print. Such information may be
subject to change, and services may be modified supplemented or withdrawn by Vodafone without prior notice.
All services are subject to terms and conditions, copies of which may be obtained on request.